Examining Zibaldones

As I was looking into what a zibaldone is I came across John Dotson's book Merchant Culture in 14th Century Venice:the Zibaldone de Canal.  I also came across Eve Wolynes' book A Living Text:Literacy, Identity,and Fourteenth Century Merchants in the Zibaldone de Canal.

The Zibaldone de Canal is made up of 9 sections:

 (1) various information on matters mercantile, including simple arithmetical problems, (2) a memorandum of formulae for converting weights and measures and currencies between various places and Venice, (3) a fragment of the Tristan story of King Milliadus (Rivalen), (4) the characteristics of spices, (5) division of the parts of the day, (6) miscellaneous medical information, (7) a brief chronicle of Venice to 1303, (8) two sirventes: 'The precepts of Reviews 135 Solomon* (known elsewhere as the 'Doctrine of the slave of Bari') and "The God of love', (9) various prayers and charms.

This comes from John Pryor's review of Dotson's book in the July 1994 issue of Parergon.

I love that it is a hodge-podge of  interests.  Some were useful such as the formulae to convert weights and measures, and perhaps the characteristics of spices.  This could be handy if you think someone is trying to rook you.

The manuscript is held at the Beinecke Library at Yale.

It would be interesting to think about what areas of interest a modern merchant would find intriguing and write about.